Titanfall – E3 preview

The action in Titanfall looks and feels overwhelmingly fast-paced and brutal – see if you can guess which one is the Titan in this picture

The world's first look at Titanfall came shortly after Microsoft had announced the eye-watering price of its new console. I remember at the time, sitting in the Galen Theatre at the Xbox keynote, hearing a journalist in my vicinity muttering that Microsoft had better have something "pretty damn special" to show us all after dropping that bombshell. I don't think the first ever Titanfall demo entirely dispelled the sour mood in the room, but it went some way towards dulling our senses.

I've seen Titanfall played twice now and because Respawn's demo team didn't supply any running commentary in either instance, certain features, modes and mechanics remain a mystery. However, because of its frenetic in-game action and the fact that both times I viewed it the volume on the game was turned way up beyond the pain threshold, I can report that the sensation of watching Titanfall can be favourably compared to being hit over the head repeatedly with an overstuffed pillow.

Titanfall is an FPS in which the players control nimble, armoured foot soldiers called Pilots, who have the ability to climb into and control giant, gun-toting battle Mechs called Titans. Initially, the action in the game looks and feels overwhelmingly fast-paced and brutal, but on closer inspection it's a lot more nuanced and lot more layered than a shooter in which tiny folk are battling giant robots has any right to be.

Tiers for fears

The action is essentially split between three tiers; the ground, the rooftops and the space that exists between the two. The first two tiers are where the armoured Pilots do most of their damage. On the higher levels, they're fiercely agile, able to parkour deftly above their mechanised foes using timed bursts of a jetpack they have strapped to their back.

At ground level, once they take refuge inside a structure, the Pilots can make themselves an absolute pest to their oversized foes; the can hide just beyond the scope of the Titans and, if co-ordinated enough in their efforts, use misdirection and sustained gunfire – or a lobbed remote explosive – to lethal effects.

Of course, if a Titan catches them out in the open, the Pilots are quickly blasted to kingdom come. Titans dominate the third space in the game – the one that exists between the ground and the sky that isn't hindered by roof ledges or makeshift bunkers dotted around the ground. Their guns and shoulder-mounted rocket launchers are infinitely more powerful than those wielded by the Pilots.

Titans also have a weapon called a Vortex Blocker, a magnetic field that allows them to stop a missile or a cluster of bullets in mid-air and then fling it back at its source of trajectory. While they aren't as fast as their miniature enemies, the Titan Mech can move at a frighteningly fast pace. One the evidence of the demo at E3, Titans are far more quick and manoeuvrable than one would guess a huge clunking suit of armour would be.

Furthermore, don't get the impression that the Pilots are in any way underpowered in the firepower department. The foot soldiers wield huge, chunky weapons that, with a sustained burst of gunfire, are more than capable of taking down a Titan.

The aim here by Respawn wasn't to turn the Mechs into unbeatable super-powered forces on the battlefield. Rather, a Titan allows players to take a more direct approach in a match, while the Pilots have to try and outfox them. The fact that Pilots are also able to cloak helps them immensely.

Driving the Hardpoint home

In the E3 demo, the Respawn developers were engaged in a match called Hardpoint, in which the Pilots on one side are tasked with providing cover for a ship called The RedEye, which is coming in to refuel. To that end they have to capture different sections of the map and shut down anti-aircraft guns that are bombarding the RedEye as it comes in to land. The opposing team … well, simply put, have to stop this happening.

Most of the players on either side start as a Pilot and as they rack up kills they earn XP that Respawn says will unlock deep levels of customisation – but they're not talking about that yet. In the bottom left of their HUD, they'll notice a countdown for a Mech launch and when the counter reaches zero, they're able to call down a Titan from an orbital platform. Once they mount this mechanical beast all of their movements become a little pronounced as they leap about the battlefield, dishing out a world of hurt to their opponents.

It was possible to notice that the player whose screen we were watching in the demo was racking up a fair number of impressive kills. Apart from the XP counter that was visible, the screen also announced that the two factions battling it out were represented by the letters MCOR and IMC – what they stand for is anyone's guess and Respawn didn't offer any clarification.

The map looked well designed if a little generic in its presentation. The action took place in and around what looked like the remains of a bombed out base overgrown with green foliage under blue, sunny skies.

In 10 minutes it was all over; having taken out the gun batteries, one team then received confirmation of an EVAC spot and with a chorus of "Get to the Chopper!" they legged it to the pick-up point and escaped. It's all pretty high-octane stuff – the sort of blockbuster action that (at least some of) the members of Respawn used to produce back in their Infinity Ward days.

The demo leaves a lot of questions hanging in the air, though. Will Titanfall's campaign be online? Is this a persistent-world shooter much like Destiny? Is the online action only available in the multiplayer? Is there co-op? What do those Titans run on? Where can I get one for the commute to work? Respawn is, as one would expect, silent on a lot of these points. Beyond what could be gleaned from the demo, all that's in the public domain really is that Titanfall is out next year …